Macrobiotic Life

I asked Klara for permission to post her beautiful words:

A couple weeks ago in our shul (synagogue) the rabbi was speaking about what exactly was this Tree that Adam and Eve sinned by eating from. He said there have been many conjectures, but his take was this – it was the Tree of More Than Enough – G-d have given Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden everything they needed for sustenance – but they didn’t need to eat from the Tree of Knowledge – but they did eat and now we “know” but we don’t – we’ve lost the innocence to know what is good for us – and our job now on this earth is to correct that – we’ve gone way overboard and disease and waste and destruction is rampant.

Now some of us are trying to figure out what it is that we really need – and there are wonderful organizations trying to help in all kinds of ways for the big picture. And more and more individuals are trying to change in their own individual lives. I’m glad mb is part of that in some ways – tho it hasn’t declared it quite officially – if there is any official mb stand – I do believe eating every edible part of the plant is part of it, not overeating is part of it, not wasting is part of it, chewing food well to get the most out of it is part of it – that’s in the big picture.

But in the small picture, I, at least, am still challenged – I still don’t know what eating til 70% full means, I still don’t always eat because of hunger, but rather because the food is so delicious, and I still eat much wider than I need to – ah, need? I still need to figure that one out, too!!!

Klara

You can visit her personal blog. Or you can join her Yahoo discussion group MacroloversOfJerusalem.

6:00 get up
6:50 shoyu + kuzu drink; my lower lip is swollen (classic reaction to the extreme yin state of my large intestine)
9:55 – 10:25 porridge – rice+barley (yesterday) with water; 15 minute stewed cabbage
11:45 – 12:00 the same
12:20 – 12:45 seitan fried on sunflower oil + shoyu + rice with barley; roasted seeds
18:00 – 18:40 rice + barley + onion + sunflower oil (1 spoon)
23:00 sleep

I would say, perfect day from the eating regime point of view. But the reason I haven’t overeaten is pretty visible. I was out from 16 am to 22 am and I couldn’t sit at home while eating unconsciously while watching some movie or reading internet. It’s a big change when I am occupied by something interesting. But because I am working from home and many times not going out at night, I have problems not to think about food, when my energy slows down and I have no idea what really interesting to do. I am single also, and this adds up a lot. When having gf I would have plenty ideas to conduct with her I need to build my discipline more, it was not such a big problem in the history. But now I am trying not to be so hard on me and rather watch consciously what my body needs/craves and not to restrict anything, but be more in the yin/yang flow of energies. If I see I do crave for sweets, I am trying to find the real reason now. I hope this overeating experiment, with no push to be disciplined, will show me some new path to my problems.

I was doing a lot of stretches through the day – the “Sun greeting” set many times and many other stretching styles.
I also met a girl by accident that is going to Iceland for 5 month and we were chatting in the Shopping store for 3 hours about her and my life.

And I bought my first new rucksack – Deuter Aircontact Pro 60 + 15. The price is in the highest range of the rucksacks prices, but I decided not to spare on two things – rucksack and boots. Because I don’t see no logic in saving $125-$200 bucks on rucksack if my backs will hurt on a long trip, the same with boots. I am slowly getting more ready for my planned future trip. I want to live in a nature for a while. I see a healthy/spiritual aspect in this trip. I want to eat and cook and chew and exercise and meditate for few days/weeks in the mountains. One of the reasons is, that I hope I will be occupied by many interesting things and the food will be no more my top daily priority. Also the food reserves will be low, so I won’t be able to eat and eat and eat.. I will need to think and spread my foods over the whole trip. That’s what I call real life discipline, not the artificial part that I would achieve at home.

7:15 get up
9:30 – 10:00 fresh pressure cooked 60% rice + 40% barley (soaked overnight); small portion very well chewed (100-200x)
- trying to meditate (watch, observe) the chewing process and thinking of my mouth as an energetic oven, where the food
is charged by the chi of Earth and Cosmos
11:15 – 11:30 the same
12:15 – 13:00 the same; watching TV
15:30 – 16:30 the same; watching TV
17:15 – 19:20 complete overeating with macrobiotic sweets; oat milk stired with hot water + pastas; roasted seeds;
seitan + sunflower oil + onion + shoyu; 1/4 jar of barley malt; oat milk dry; watching internet videos
22:00 sleep

Again totally overeaten with sweets. Idiotic behaviour, that the reason of this, is mainly the lack of an interesting
activity to pursue at midnight. My energy is low after reading, studying whole day and I am eating because of being
bored. What a bad reason. But still I have to praise myself too, because the head start to the day (well, up until the
midnight) was very good. I was chewing perfectly, eating low portions, doing things that interested me (mainly
macrobiotic/taoism study).. only the hours past 17 were totally off.